Entry 226; Day 543

[misterblackbird]

[Filtered from Known Enemies || Unhackable]
How unexpected that there's no curse today. After the curse this weekend--yes, it was a curse, and I knew it was a curse at the time, but I'm going to put my lack of concern about it being a curse down to the curse itself--I would have expected another one by now. I think everything that can be said about this weekend has been said already, too.

Perhaps I ought to be grateful. But it's rather difficult to be grateful when you're just sitting around, trying to go on with one's life, waiting for the next catastrophe to strike. That's life in the City. We, as ever, live between the curses. I'll savour the quiet while I can.

So I've been going through the opera house closets, the same as I did last year. Admittedly, I'm still hesitant in case last year's Hallowe'en curse repeats this year. I think I spent the better part of the day going through dusty robes and old velvet. And I think I may have found some suitable costumes. There are costumes upon costumes here--of all sorts and all styles. I do have to wonder where the things in these closets came from, though.

It's entirely possible that the City has been here for hundreds of years, even thousands of years if we believe what the 'deities' have told us, and these costumes have been left behind by other citizens. I have to wonder what shows might have been performed here by residents long gone. Certainly interesting ones by the look of the ruins they left behind. Perhaps those who performed before were here for some time, and then vanished, perhaps in short order. That would give rise to the name 'Opera Abandoned', wouldn't it?

Still, the costumes are here, and still very usable, and I mean to put them to good use. So, anyone who's decided that they want to create a Hallowe'en costume for me had best hurry or else I may choose one for myself. I've found a few coats I'm quite taken with. And Miss Mudou's suggestion of dressing as a vampire is seeming a bit intriguing. I couldn't play Dracula, but perhaps some variation on the theme. I know there were stories and novels enough about them in my world, and some ostensibly true stories.

What does a vampire look like, anyway, aside from the tell-tale teeth? There seems to be no end to the variations on that that I've heard of. Or seen. Or even been briefly married to-- So I feel like I can take very nearly anything interesting out of these closets and use it. There must be miles of black velvet in them. The question more becomes what era I'd like to choose, or even if it should be something of my own world.

I'm still not planning on going trick-or-treating on Hallowe'en night. I think I'm a bit too old for that. But I don't see any harm in dressing up, obviously.

I wonder if the fact that there is no curse today bodes good or ill. From one side, the very lack of gruesome and deadly curses this month, as compared to last year I mean, might mean that we'll escape this month without all the pain of last year. Or, it may mean that the worst is yet to come, that this is the calm before the storm.

After last year at Hallowe'en, I will give due consideration to what I wear. Last year, we were cursed more and more as the sun set, as I recall. And we began to believe ourselves to be what we were dressed as--or perhaps we really became it. I can't be certain. But I do know how I woke the next day and I do not wish to repeat it.

But the fact that none of the other curses have repeated this October perhaps means that even that last one won't repeat. Indeed, things have improved as the month has gone on, with the curses becoming less and less bloody, moving from death matches to dangerous races to dancing. Hallowe'en falls on a Friday this year, and the other curses all began on Fridays. I want to see a pattern in that, but I don't quite yet.

The obvious assumption is that Hallowe'en may be the beginning of a new string of curses, perhaps one final weekend of it. But Hallowe'en may also be something on its own, since it's a holiday of its own. The other curses haven't seemed to tie directly to it, not like last year.

I'm so tired of talking about last year, last October. We can't be sure how it will fall for us. And that is life in the City as well, wretched as it is.

I've a bit more planning to do with my own projects, but there's not much left yet to do. I wonder if there are any printers in the City who could manage some decent-looking invitations.

So quiet, so very quiet these days--Is this life as it would have been or could have been?--Not without Riff and Merry here, surely--And yet, to find myself so at leisure, so unconcerned--What is this?--I begin to feel like I am not myself, almost like I've been struck with some sort of inverted curse--the curse of my blood and eyes turned backwards--And I think I dislike it--I miss things as they were, even at their darkest--

~C.

[ooc: I really meant to post this earlier. Mm. Fail.]

Comments

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

It is strange how that works, isn't it?

[dreamsofnoah]

It is. Most of the worlds other people are from seem more different than the same, though.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's undeniable. But there are strange similarities that seem to follow from world to world. The word 'exorcist', for example, between your world and mine.

[dreamsofnoah]

What do exorcists do in your world?

Actually~, what's your world like?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

For those of the faiths that believe in them and use them, they drive out demons and evil spirits from wherever they've taken up lodging--that could be in a house or a building, or in a person's mind.

What's my world like? How can I possibly explain that?

[dreamsofnoah]

That's backwards from how it is in our world.

Hmm. I don't know. What's it like for you? How do you spend your time there?

1/2

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

You mean the exorcists put spirits into things?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

In appearance, I suppose it looked a little like this place. It was a city, though not quite so sleek and glittering as this one--Xanadu is quite a lot like the parks in London, where I lived. It was a city where the whole city looked a bit like the opera house--though that's not the whole world, that's only my city. The men there were dressed a bit like me, and the women wore long skirts with bustles and corsets and dramatic hats. We didn't have Network devices or electric lights, and I've gotten rather fond of both since living here, and there were far more carriages and horses than there are here. There were some people who were very rich, and some who were very poor--I'm the former and my sister was the latter until I found her. It rained more there than it does here. I, myself, was having difficulties with my father. That occupied a great deal of my time. Besides that, I had my sister to attend to, but Riff helped a great deal with that.

It's impossible to describe my entire life and world to you.

1/2

[dreamsofnoah]

No, no, I meant that it's people's souls being put into demons, not demons inside people.

[dreamsofnoah]

It sounds a lot like my world. Carriages and horses, no electric lights, though those are~ being used a bit more now. Father and mother dress just like you described. I've been to London too, sometimes.

I know it's impossible to describe everything, but even a little bit is interesting.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Now it makes a bit better sense, people's souls being put into demons. And I suppose these exorcists undo that.

Then perhaps you can picture it better than some other people can. I hope that little bit sufficed.

[dreamsofnoah]

They try to, at least.

Very much the same. I wonder if I should miss it more than I do. And yes~ ♥

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I know I miss my world sometimes. Having been here for as long as I have, it's almost impossible not to miss it.

Now, to be fair, you must tell me about your world.

[dreamsofnoah]

I miss my family more than I miss anything from my world.

Well~. Like I said, a lot of things are the same. There's school - I only go when I feel like it or if Father insists. I get bored and I don't like the other children there, they're are all stuck up because it's an expensive place. Father's always made sure I had the best since he adopted me, but he's very busy. A minister with the government. Mother's frail and tired all the time, I see the servants more than I see her.

But sometimes I go travelling, with Tyki, or with the Duke, or I borrow Lero and go on my own. Everywhere's different. A lot of the villages are small and poor, not like the places I go to with Father, though I like those too. Edo was my favourite place to visit, but it's gone now so I'll have to find a different favourite place.

Then there's the Black Order, of course. The Vatican sending out Finders and Exorcists crawling about everywhere. Most people don't notice them too much.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

It does sound a little like my world, but more different than the same.